As the Ottoman Empire mounts a genocidal campaign against its Armenian population, an Armenian woman raised in Paris (Charlotte Le Bon) returns to her native land with her lover (Christian Bale), who works for the Associated Press, and the growing political crisis drives her into the arms of a soulful Armenian medical student (Oscar Isaac). There's something awkwardly old-fashioned about grafting a Casablanca-style love triangle onto a humanitarian tragedy—especially one that's still fighting its way into the history books. But director Terry George brings to this story a special gift, honed in his Hotel Rwanda (2004), for choreographing the chaos of civil collapse, and the three stars serve him well, finding in each character the space where private emotion collides with the harsh dictates of history.
ByJ.R. Jones